The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-11
ROBT. NIX, DESERTER.
B. E. sawyer in Youth. 5 Comr anion.

3. F. Sawyer in Youths COMPANION.
1t was rough cabin home, squatting as il
10 hide its squalor, in struggling grove OF
scrubby oaks It's outside appearance denoted
,thriftless poverty. The tumble-down cowsheds,
Che dilapidated corn crib, the broken fence,
with corners choked with briers, and the drag
.ging gate told of a shiftless master.
Its interior, however, presented different
ASPECT The rough board floor was scrubbed
white; the scant furniture was scrupulously
clean, while pots and pans and the little store
of crockery was as bright as soap and water
and busy fingers could make them.
The immaculate Whiteness Of the drapery,
arranged with certain Tnstudied grace, spoke
as plainly to the credit of the mistress, rs the
outside did to the discredit of the master.
Sam Nix and his wife were an ill-mated pair.
They had nothing in common, except the hard
fortune that linked their lives together and pov
,erty. He was hard, uncoutb cold; she, gen.
ttle, refined and sweet. Not even in regard TO
their children were they sympathetic, for while
she loved them both devotedly, and especially
her bright-eyed, manly boy, he cared hardly so
much for his son as he did for his fayorite
hound.
1t was in the spring of 1868, the third year of
the war. The first wild storm of passion that
swept over the land had exhausted itself, and
men, furiously blind before, had begun to real
We sl.e ssangAE TIE dssaa &c hosgegs 81
Many men who in the delrium of patriotic
frenzy had rushed into the field, impatient of
its tardy glories, had found the realities of its
duties stern, unsentmental; and not q few,
even of the bravest, were, to tell the truth,
Aomesek.
Among those whose devotion to his state
was the first to take fire and the first to evapo.
3ate was ono George Caloule young man,
the proud, petted son, of proud, but not
wealthy, father.
From the time he could cry, his every whim,
SHAT the foolish fondness of his mother and the
moderate means of his father could crafty,
bad been INDUCED. Accordingly, when, catch
ing something of the spirit of patriotism that
excited the breasts of Drawer and bet
Ger men, he offered to volunteer as soft place
as possible was obtained for him. Not much
could be done, however; only a non-commis-
STONED officers berth was secured. But he
took that, and in high feather marched away,
10 commissary sergeat in the Thirty-fourth
regiment of Alabama Volunteers.
For time he found life in the camp pleas
1Jng routine Of light duties. But after a while
the restraint of the service began to vex him.
and he longed for the Astounding freedom of
home.
Then came the battle of Stone river. and
though he was safe in the rear with the cooking
detail, an cratic shell came screeching through
the tree-tops dangerously near his precious
head and he wrote at once to his mother to ar
Range. if possible, for his discharge.
"This thing is getting to be a bore, any way"
he wrote, land it is no longer place for gem
flemGn. There are poor trash enough to do
the fighting; they are fit for nothing else, and
L don't see the use of n gentleman wasting his
&ist1fs n111a Y1cn for
Tell father to send mo substitute right
away"
But substitute was not easily found. The
CONSUMPTION act, enrolling every white male
citizen between the ages of eighteen and forty
Ave had been passed and was being rigidly en-
forced, and where every man had to answer for
himself, there was no one to answer for poor
George Caloule.
"But there is old Nix's boy; couldn't they
take him? he is not of age yet but is large
enough to pass, suggested the anxious mother.
81 am sure he is better able to stand it than
poor dear George"
YES, he will do--a fine, strapping lad. will
see old Nix and give him two hundred dollars
70 let him go, If only for sixty days, and then
we eau rope him in for good, said the old gem
-tleman.
Nix needed the money, and when to the two
hundred dollars was added ten pounds Of fine
plug tobacco and n herd of goats that ran on
Che mountain behind his lots, the bargain was
made, and the unloving wretch went home to
prepare his son for the sacrifice
4 Robert Nix, the boy, not yet fifteen, was not
unwilling to go. With the enthusiasm of youth
The had read of battles and wished himself
"a man that he might share in their glories. lis
ipother, howevar, and his sister, were not so
enthusiastic, and with unayailing tears pro-
Rested against the cruel bargain.
"It he had to 20, if his country needed him,
III it was to fill his own place, would not mind
It. ] would be proud TO give my boy 10 my
state. but TO 90 as o substituted hrelinr slave
TO take the Marc gf This TDyVQpliV laIOUlp